Thicker Than Blood
by shadowmeister
Summary: Zen is a ghoul. Something he just discovered. He is a strange one. He has the weapons of a demon hidden in his spine but chooses to use his strength instead. He could kill easily but hates the very thought of eating human flesh. What is he? That's something he wants to find out. Now he goes to Tokyo alongside his friend, an ex-ghoul hunter, to find whoever killed his family.
1. CELL 01: THE CRUELTY OF NATURE

Zen aimed at the target with his handgun, let out a small breath and fired.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the bullet had made a hole in the second ring, a few inches away from the centre.

He sighed. One of these days, he was going to hit a bullseye. He cleared the chamber and popped out the magazine, walking outside. He took off his ear mufflers and put them on the desk in front of him.  
"Thanks, Shin," he said, handing over the gun.

"What's the matter, kid?" the old man asked. "No more? I only heard five shots."

"I think I've had enough for today," Zen said. "Mark my words, when I come back next week, I'm going to get that bullseye."

"Good luck with that."

"Yeah. Well, I'll see you next week, Shin," Zen said and walked out. He took the short path through the woods, pulling the jacket tighter around him as his breath frosted.

His name was Shigemura Zen, age fifteen, only child, resident of Japan. He was told he was a bright student, but he didn't believe that. His parents were very busy and he hardly saw them, as they left quite early in the morning and evening.

However, when he was younger, Zen's father had taken him to this same shooting range to have a good time. And while he held no expectations of his father to take him again anytime soon, Zen still came to the range at least once a week. He really didn't know why.

He lived in the country, a mile or two away from the city of Tokyo. He had a fair amount of friends, his best friend Ouji also being an avid gun lover.

Zen wondered why he didn't live in the city. He knew his parents were wealthy, and they would probably do a lot better in a place like Tokyo. Zen lived in a remote but large house on the edge of the woods. Ouji's parents were divorced, his mother living in the city. Ouji himself stayed with his father a short walk away from Zen.

Zen walked down the small hill to the back door of his house. He fumbled with the key and let himself in.

"Zen!" his mother yelled.

Zen grunted. It was as if his mother had superhuman hearing. It was impossible to be discreet with her around.

"Hi, mom," Zen said. His mother came downstairs and pinched his cheek.

"How did the shooting go?" she asked.

"Okay. I almost got the bullseye, but I just couldn't get it."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure you'll get it right next week."

Zen nodded and began his way up to his room, when his mother called after him.

"Zen, did you take your pills?"

Zen stopped. "Ah. No, no I didn't. I'll do that now."

"Zen," his mother said, suddenly very furious, "how many times have I told you, you must not forget your pills!"

"I'm sorry, mom. I'll take them now." He walked back down.

"Make sure you do," his mother said and walked upstairs.

Zen muttered to himself and opened a bottle of his pills. He took out two, popped them in his mouth at the same time and gulped them down with some water. He shook his head and blinked. He had been taking these pills twice every day, without fail, since he was four years old. And they tasted terrible.

He was told he had a rare disease, and that these pills were keeping him from falling into a fatal state. He had no idea what exactly would happen if he stopped dosing, but he had been told the symptoms- extreme cranial and abdominal pain, starvation, and powerful, strange desires.

Zen sighed and walked up to his room, shutting the door behind him and avoiding his mother. It was cold. He sank into his bed, looked out his window to the slate grey sky, pulled the sheets over himself and fell into black sleep.

XXX

Zen awoke a few hours later, the sky black. He was sweating madly, and pain wracked his torso like a hot knife. He fell out of his bed, clawing at the floor. He gritted his teeth and grabbed his doorknob, stumbling and falling out of his room. He got to his feet and made his slow way out of his room and through the corridor to his parents room.

He slammed a hand on his mother's door.

"Mom," he cried weakly. "Mom! I really need you right- AGGGH!" He clutched his abdomen and fell back, down the stairs. He made his way to the kitchen, crawling on the floor, and reached up to the drawer. He pulled it all the way out, and it came crashing to the floor.

The bottle of red pills fell to the ground and smashed, and Zen desperately grabbed two and stuffed them into his mouth. When nothing happened, he grabbed more and pulled them into his mouth.

It didn't work.

XXX

Kaname Shigemura put his hands over his face and sighed. He got off his chair, picked up his briefcase and walked out of his office. He walked down the spotless hallway and checked his watch. 3 o'clock in the morning. The bags under his eyes proved he went home at this time very often the past few months.

He stopped suddenly when he heard a man walk up behind him.

He sucked on a cigarette, the tip glowing orange and illuminating the skull mask on his face momentarily.

"Good evening, Kaname," he said.

Kaname threw his briefcase down and ran for the man, his eyes gleaming red, the whites darkening to black. Three tentacles of flesh protruded from his back, becoming thicker and growing thorns. The tentacles dove for the man, who calmly stood there as an even larger spiral of flesh grew from under his shoulder blades, piercing his clothing and intercepting the three other tentacles with ease.

"Hm," he said, blowing smoke, "attacking me. That is an automatic death penalty. Luckily for you, I just want to talk."

Kaname let the tentacles pull back. "You're with the Warehouse. What are you doing here? We had a deal! You were supposed to leave us alone!"

"The matter here is your son, Kaname. The ghoul repressants you created. You and I both know that they're flawed. Your son has almost reached maturity, am I correct? The medicine soon won't be able to suppress his ghoul nature anymore. And what a cruel thing to do. Letting him believe he's human, while secretly feeding him human flesh-"

"What do you want?"

"Very soon, Kaname, your son's ghoul nature will surface. And when that happens, you need to stop him from going on a rampage. His kakuhou is a mutated monstrosity, and his kagune is beyond any ordinary ghoul. But you know this. Keep him on a leash when he starts getting hungry. If we get news of more deaths than usual, we'll know who's causing them. That's all I've come to say."

He stubbed the cigarette and began walking away, then stopped suddenly and turned.

"Don't forget why you gave him those repressants in the first place, Kaname. If the doves even get near Zen, we will kill him before they make a quinque out of him. If anyone gets that Kagune of your son's, mark my words, you die, slowly and painfully."

Kaname said nothing as the man in the skull mask walked down the hallway, opened the window and jumped out.

XXX

Kaname parked into his driveway. He sighed in frustration and fumbled with the lock to his house. Tomorrow morning, he would have to start making stronger pills to suppress his son's ghoul side.

The door finally opened. Kaname stepped in, and his foot crunched on broken glass. He frowned and put down his briefcase. He stepped into the kitchen and saw Zen lying there on the floor, his mouth foaming, his eyes bloodshot and rolled up into the back of his head.

"Zen!" Kaname yelled, dropping down. "Zen! What happened!? Oh, kami- Suzuya! Suzuya, get down here now!"

A few minutes later, Kaname's wife came running down the stairs, her hair in a mess.

"What?" she said. "What happ- oh my god." She knelt down next to her son and shook him frantically.

"Go get some water!" Kaname shouted.

Suzuya nodded and grabbed a cup, filled it with cold water. She brought it down to Zen and Kaname took it, lifted up his head. He opened up his son's mouth to make sure he wasn't choking on anything, and spilled the cold water down his throat.

Zen coughed and croaked something inaudible.

"What is it, son?" Kaname said, leaning his head down to hear.

"Need... need..."

"What do you need, Zen?" Kaname's ear was right above his son's mouth.

"...Flesh."

Kaname widened his eyes and lifted his head slowly. He looked at his son's half opened eyes, and saw the red where the light brown used to be, and black where the whites used to be.

"Oh my god," Suzuya whispered. "Kaname... his eyes..."

Kaname looked at her with a horrified look in his eyes. "He... he said he needs flesh."

"Need... need flesh... now..." Zen kept croaking.

Kaname sat there, teeth gritted. He finally got up, and stormed to the back of the house.

"Kaname," Suzuya shouted at him. "Kaname, where are you going?"

"He's hungry. And there's only one way to satisfy a ghoul's hunger." He wrenched the false wall open with incredible strength, revealing the white metal door. He typed in the thirteen digit passcode and spoke very clearly: "Shigemura Shin-Ne Tousen Kaname."

The machine beeped green once, the words 'WELCOME DR. SHIGEMURA.' appearing momentarily. The thick metal door unlocked.

"Wait, Kaname. You can't feed him flesh! You don't know what that will do if he eats it in this state! He's never-"

"OUR SON IS STARVING TO DEATH! I WON'T LET HIM DIE!"

Kaname reached into the freezer and pulled out a large slab of frozen mincemeat. He went to the sink, rinsed it under the tap.

He yelled as it hardly defrosted. In desperation, he grew a thick tentcle of muscle from his back and wrapped it around the slab of mince. The tentacle pulsed and stayed like that for a while.

When the tentacle unwrapped, the slab of meat was now thick, warm, slop that stuck to the mans fingers.

Kaname scooped up the meat in his hands and swallowed his spit nervously.

He opened his son's mouth and force fed him the warm meat.

Zen's eyes flew open and pulsed red light. He swallowed more and more of the meat hungrily, as if he had been deprived.

"More," he said.

Kaname scooped more up and shoveled the red slop into his son's mouth, who swallowed like there was no tomorrow. Kaname's eyes teared as he looked on.

Once he had had a few more mouthfuls, Zen passed out, slumped motionlessly in his father's arms.

Kaname set his son on the floor and slumped back, sighing with relief. He stayed like that for a while before his wife touched his hand. His eyes fluttered open.

"What do we do now?" Suzuya asked, her voice trembling.

The man leant his head back. "I was planning on starting the development of a stronger strain of pills for Zen. I guess we'll have to start sooner than expected."

"How are we going to explain this to Zen?"

"We tell him that this was a mistake, that we got the wrong batch of pills, and the symptoms caught up with him. In the meantime, you and I need to go and start making stronger strains of the medicine." Kaname stood up shakily.

"Wait," Suzuya said. "We can't take him with us when we go to make the pills."

"We can leave him here."

"Alone? But what about his health? What if he gets another attack while we're gone!?"

Kaname strode over to the open freezer, grabbing another slab of frozen human flesh and wrapping part of his kagune around it. "Then I'll just have to feed him enough to last a day." Kaname turned to his wife, the meat melting. "Go to bed, dear. You don't want to see this."

XXX

Zen cracked his eyes open and looked up at a grey ceiling. He was not in his room. He attempted to get up, grabbed the wooden bedside, and felt it crack underneath his fingers. He looked at it, confused. Then his thoughts caught up with him and he felt surprised. It must have been really weak to just break like that.

He swung his legs off the- couch?- and planted his feet on the ground. As soon as he tried to get up, he was hit by a powerful wave of nausea and dizziness.

He fell back and shook his head. It was if he had eaten way too much food. Foreign food.

He breathed into his hand and sniffed. It smelled very, very strongly of toothpaste. Had his parents brushed his teeth last night?

He suddenly clutched his bedsheets and widened his eyes. Last night. He had been getting every single symptom his parents told him he'd get if he didn't take his pills. He was in a lot of pain last night. But he had taken them, right?

He looked at his watch, and yelled in shock. It was late. He was supposed to have taken his pills 3 hours ago. He clutched at his stomach, expecting it to burst in pain.

He licked his dry lips and tasted something sweet and tangy.

He did it again. It tasted... good. Better than anything he'd ever tasted. It was very similar to the curry his mother made frequently.

Freaked out of his mind, Zen got up, fighting against the dizziness, but the surprise of the nausea was gone. He walked through the door and found his dad putting on his white coat and his mother making a mug of coffee. As soon as he walked in, before he even made a sound, as if they could smell him, they snapped up their hands to look at him.

"Zen," his father stepped forward and hugged him. "Are you okay, kiddo?"

"Uh, yeah dad, just a bit... dizzy," Zen replied, caught off guard.

His father let go and looked at Zen's face weirdly closely. Once he seemed satisfied, he stood straight again.

"Zen," his mother said. She laid the mug of coffee on the table. "Drink up. The whole thing. Come on."

"Uh, okay, mom." Zen did so. It tasted much better than usual. "Wow, mom. This is pretty good."

His parents did nothing but smile nervously and look at him uncomfortably closely. Zen pretended not to notice and finished the mug. He placed it on the counter. "So, uh-,"

"We're leaving, Zen," his mother said abruptly.

"What?" Zen asked, confused.

Kaname put a hand on his wife's shoulder. "What your mother is trying to say, is that she and I are going out. We need to go and take care of your pills."

"What happened last night, Dad? I had an attack, I thi- Wait, what's wrong with my pills!?"

His father hesitated. "Zen, exactly how much do you remember from last night?"

"Uh, I woke up, feeling really bad in my stomach, and I... fell to the kitchen?" Zen looked at the kitchen strangely. He remembered the drawer falling to the floor, but everything seemed normal. Clean. "Then I, uh... tried eating my pills... but they didn't... work... oh. Wow."

Kaname leant down and held his son's shoulders. "Alright, Zen. Listen very carefully. Yes, you had a very bad attack last night. I'm sure your memories are fuzzy. But your mother and I need to go and makke you more pills. The old ones won't work anymore."

"Then... then how am I going to stop another attack!? If the pills don't work anymore, then I'm going to-"

"Relax, son. Your mother and I... gave you a very strong injection last night. It should stop any attacks from happening to you throughout the day. But right now, we need to leave."

"I can't come with you?"

"I'm sorry, Zen. Its very delicate work. You can't wait outside, either. Its not a very popular place."

Kaname grabbed his keys and Suzuya pulled on her jacket. She hugged her son tightly and let go, smiled at him. "Don't do anything crazy when we're gone."

"Alright, Zen," Kaname said. "Some rules. First, under the case any attacks happen, you need to grab the container in the fridge, and eat what's inside. Secondly, no leaving the house at all, under any circumstances. You can't. Sit in one place, don't touch anything, be careful not to eat."

"These are some pretty weird rules," Zen said.

"Don't argue."

"Sorry."

Kaname sighed and smiled at his son. "How about, when this is all over, you and me go to the shooting range again?"

"Seriously?"

"Mm hmm."

"That sounds.. great, dad."

Kaname nodded. "Take care of yourself. Remember the rules I told you. I'll see you soon."

Zen nodded and watched his parents as they walked out the door. It slammed shut, and Zen was alone again.

XXX

Zen sat on the couch for two hours, watching anime. He checked his watch. It was past twelve o'clock. He sighed, bored. He grabbed his phone and called Ouji. It rang a few times, then that familiar voice answered.

"Shigemura Zen. What makes you call me now? You in the bathroom facing womanly decisions?"

"Shut up," Zen said. "Where the hell do you come up with this stuff?"

Ouji laughed. "What's up, man?"

"I'm stuck at home and really bored. Can you come over?"

"It's Sunday. If you're bored, just go to the shooting range like you normally do."

"Can't. My parents put me on house arrest."

"Seriously? Wow. Shigemura Shin-Ne Tousen Zen, the golden, loyal boy without a defiant bone in his body... is grounded? Nice. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually impressed. You're acting like a real teenager."

"Shut up. Like you're any different. No normal teenager sleeps with a handgun under his pillow."

Ouji laughed loudly. "Fair enough."

"So? Can you come over?"

"I guess so. Want me to bring a couple handguns over for target practice?"

"I told you, I can't go outside."

"Not even to your backyard? Shit, man. What did you do, get caught having sexy time with a girl?"

Zen laughed. "Come over, and I'll tell you."

"Alright, man. I'll see you in fifteen minutes."

Zen hung up and put the phone in his pocket. He got up and boiled some water. The nausea and dizziness was getting less prominent. He was just finished making the coffee when he heard a knock on the door..

"Give me all your belongings and women!"

Zen sighed and opened the door. "Are you retarded?" He asked. "What if my mother was here and answered the door?"

Karyuudo Ouji shrugged. "Life ain't worth anything without some risk."

"Come in, crazy."

Ouji grinned and hopped into the house. He was wearing a dark turtleneck, black jacket and blue jeans. He flipped up his hair and grinned that homosexual grin.

"Don't do that! You gaybo!" Zen yelled.

"What's wrong, Zen? For all you know, I could be wanting you."

"Hime Bano's face after you two spent twenty minutes in the bathroom together tells me otherwise."

Zen grinned. "She was so hot. I'm gonna marry that girl one day, mark my words, Zen."

"Sure, man. You want some coffee?"

"Gross. No way, man."

"Your loss, Karyuudo. It's really good today."

"Ugh. Coffee is freaking disgusting. Dunno how you can drink the stuff."

Zen shrugged and poured some in a mug for himself. He frowned and sniffed. He took an even deeper sniff. "You smell that?" He finally asked.

"Smell what?"

"Something... good. Smells like hot curry. Or roast chicken."

"Uh... no. Hey, so tell me, what happened to get you grounded for the first time in your life?"

"I'm not grounded. In fact, I didn't even do anything wrong."

"Then what happened?"

Zen hesitated. "My disease caught up with me."

Ouji widened his eyes. "Seriously? So you went all..."

"Spazzy, yeah. Anyway, my parents went out to get me more medicine before this one wears off. Its really strong or something, so I can't take it instead of the pills, or something like that. Do you honestly not smell that?"

"No! What the hell are you even going on about?"

"Are you wearing a new cologne or something?"

"Am I- No! Why would I wear something smelling like roast food? Wait, uh, Zen."

"What?"

"You're... you know... you're drooling."

Zen touched his face and felt something wet there. He hurriedly wiped it away with a towel. "Sorry, Ouji. Must be some side effect of the meds. That stuff just smells really good."

"Whatever, man. Oh, I got something for you." He threw him a chocolate energy bar, biting into one of his own.

"Thanks," Zen said. He unwrapped his and bit into it. His eyes widened and he rushed to the sink and retched, spitting it up.

"Whoa, Zen, you okay!?"

"Ugh," Zen said. "What the hell? That tastes worse than my pills. Is it expired?"

"No. I bought both of them today, and mine tastes fine."

"That injection did something..."

"You shouldn't worry so much. Those pills will fix you up easy. You wanna watch some T.V?"

Zen nodded gratefully.

They watched anime until it began getting dark.

"Nah, man, Enju would be way better for Rentaro to marry," Ouji said.

"I can't believe we are actually having this conversation," Zen said.

Ouji's phone began ringing. "Just a sec, man," he said quietly after looking at the contact. Zen knew from experience it was Ouji's father. Ouji got up and walked into the back of the room and answered the call.

"What is it?" He asked in an intensely quiet voice, all traces of humor gone. Even from the couch, Zen could hear the shouting on the other end of the line.

"I'm at Zen's place. No, I didn't tell mom. I had spare time, so I came here. Wait, what? Where? Are you serious? That close? I- Alright. Fine. I'm coming." He hung up the phone and slapped it off angrily.

"What was all that about?" Zen asked.

"Just family stuff. Listen, man, I gotta go home. Sorry."

"No, man, it's fine. Thanks for coming over."

"Yeah," Ouji said quietly and pulled on his jacket, closing the front door behind him.

XXX

"And... done." Kaname said, filling the last vial with dark red liquid.

"You're sure this will keep his ghoul side down?" Suzuya asked.

"This is at least 10 times stronger than the last batch. We can come back tomorrow and start converting them to pill form. For now, though, we need to get these back to Zen and give him some straight away."

Suzuya nodded, eyes down. Kaname stepped up to her and hugged her.

"Don't worry," he whispered. "Soon, we can put this entire ghoul emergence behind us. I'll make sure our son becomes human again... and stays that way. Alright?"

"Alright," Suzuya whispered back, hugging her husband.

XXX

Outside the research facility, three men in dark clothes and skull masks stood on a rooftop, listening to every word Kaname Shigemura and his wife had said.

"Well," said the man in the ivory mask, "it looks like you were right, Wattari."

The man in the polished wood mask nodded. "What do we do now, Boss?"

The man in the silver mask and the yellowish white suit stubbed his cigar. "Wait for them to leave. We were right. Their son has lost it. We let them go home, and kill all three of them there."

Without another word, he turned and walked across the rooftop, stepping off it. His two subordinates looked at each other, and followed.

XXX

Ouji breathed slowly, his breath frosting and his jacket flapping in the cold night wind. He held his modified assault rifle in his hands and walked up to the group of men standing on the hill above the road.

"Where the hell have you been!?" Karo Karyuudo spat.

"I told you," Ouji said through gritted teeth. "I was at a friend's place. Now, do you want to tell me what's going on here?"

Ouji's father glared at him. He pointed at the road. "Two hours ago, a man in a suit was walking through this road. Straight along, like he owned it. Then a truck came, crashed into him. The trucker came out, checked to see what he'd done. Then the man in the suit got up, beat him to death and ate half his corpse."

"Only half? Why?"

"Do I look like a mind reader!?"

"Let's just find this ghoul and bring him down. I don't need to talk to you while we do this." Ouji turned and Karo grabbed his collar.

"No," he said. "As punishment for being late, you carry all our guns."

Ouji pulled away furiously and gritted his teeth. "I'm not a little student anymore. You can't give me shit orders like that," he spat and trudged down the hill.

Karo's brother put his hand on his sibling's shoulder. "You should go easy on him."

Karo shoved him. "Shut it!"

They followed up with Ouji and looked for the ghoul in the yellow and white suit.

XXX

Zen got up when he heard a knock on the door. He opened it and saw his parents standing out there. They walked in, checking on him.

"Are you alright, Zen?" His mother asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Zen," his father said, walking into the kitchen and picking up the half eaten energy bar. "Were you eating this!?"

"Uh... yeah. I spit it out, though. It tasted really bad. Ouji brought it over."

Kaname slammed his hands on the counter suddenly. "What did I say about eating!? And what was Ouji doing here!?"

"We just... watched anime. There was this really weird smell, too..."

"Smell?" Suzuya asked.

"Yeah, mom. It was really good, like your curry. Ouji smelt like it. I actually started drooling when I smelt it."

Kaname pushed away the box full of vials and shouted. "ZEN! I SPECIFICALLY TOLD YOU NOT TO EAT! AND WHY DID YOU INVITE OUJI!? I TOLD YOU NOT TO!"

Zen fell back. "B-but I-"

"Now, Kaname," said a voice from the back of the room. "Don't shout at the boy like that. He's fifteen, for goodness sake."

Kaname turned slowly. The man in the yellowish white suit and silver mask walked up to them, cigar in hand. Even from this distance, Zen could see the red eyes beneath the mask's eyes sockets.

"Gh-ghoul!" Zen shouted, stepping back and pointing. "Mom, dad! Call the CCG!"

When Zen's parents did nothing, the man in the suit threw back his head and laughed. "This is rich!" He shouted.

"Mom? Dad!? Come on!"

"Ah, this is just cruel, Kaname. He probably has a disgust for ghouls lodged deep in him, not knowing his entire family is made up of them!"

"Shut up, Chromeskull," Kaname snarled. "He's lying, Zen."

"Oh, yes! If I'm lying, why would your father bother clarifying this fact instead of simply running!? How would he know my name!?"

Kaname stiffened.

Chromeskull laughed and bowed slightly. "Yes, Zen. My name is Chromeskull, but you may call me Chrome. It's so good to be finally meeting you after so much hearing."

"GET OUT!" Kaname yelled and charged the man. Chrome laughed madly beneath the mask and grabbed Kaname's head, smashing it into the T.V. He pulled him out, shards of glass lodged in his face.

"What is this, Kaname? You're not going to come after me with your Kagune? Are you honestly trying to still keep up this secret for your son?"

"KANAME!" Suzuya screamed and before anyone could do anything, she grew two purple tentacles of flesh from her back that lunged for Chrome.

Chrome grinned under the mask and held Kaname in front of him, so the tentacles pierced through his body instead. Kaname roared in pain and coughed blood. Suzuya screamed and the tentacles pulled themselves out of Kaname's torso.

Zen fell to the floor and stared at her mother in horror and at the flesh protruding from her back. She looked at him, and he saw the blood red eyes where the dark green used to be.

Zen screamed and scrambled back, terrified. What was going on? Why was his mother growing tentacles!?

Suzuya had a pained look on her face, then snarled at Chrome. "You bastard... you've ruined everything!" She ran for him, Kagune swirling, when another man fell from the ceiling and plunged his hand through her chest. Suzuya widened her eyes and gasped, her blood pooling to the floor.

"NO!" Zen yelled. "MOM!"

"Su...zu...ya..." Kaname gurgled, looking at her bleeding wound. "Zen... run..."

Chrome chucked Kaname behind him. "Wattari!" He yelled. "Kuusou! Hold our friends down."

The men in the ivory and wooden masks propped up the shakily breathing parents of Shigemura Zen. Chrome strode over to Zen, who scrambled away frantically. Chrome came up and grabbed Zen's head, smashed it into the wall over and over again. When he stopped, Zen was gasping in pain and bleeding in a dozen places on his face.

Chrome plunged his hand into Zen's belly.

Zen screamed in pain.

"That should catch your attention," Chrome said. He lifted Zen's head and forced his eyes open. "I want you see, before I bring an end to your little life, the way your parents are tortured before they die."

Wattari pushed his kagune out his shoulder blades and lined it with his fingertips. Kuusou, however, grabbed a steel mallet from his pouch.

"No," Zen murmured desperately. "No, please don't."

Chrome laughed. "Don't stop," he told the men.

Wattari brought his hand up and down, stabbing Kaname over and over again in different places. Kuusou brought the mallet up, and smashed it into the head of Suzuya Shigemura, again and again.

Zen strained uselessly against the hold of Chromeskull, who laughed at the dying screams of his parents that ended abruptly with splatters of blood.

The two men eventually stopped, panting, eyes blood red.

"Do you get it?" Chromeskull asked. "I've studied this. I know what happened. You had an attack last night because you grew out of your medication and became a ghoul again. You were struck by starvation, and it was _torture_. The reason your friend smelt so good, was because your ghoul instincts were telling you to eat him. When you're dead, I think I'll eat him. He looked juicy enough. I'll do it while he's alive. Those screams just get my blood pumping, you know!?"

Zen couldn't hear anything. The speech Chromeskull gave about the ways he would eat Ouji were the only audible things in his mind.

He looked down. Were his parents... dead?

His half closed eyes darted toward Chromeskull. That man... that man had killed them. He had ended their lives... quickly. One second they were alive, the next they weren't. Huh. Zen could feel nothing but cold, emotionless thoughts as this man drilled his torturous words into him.

Then something in Zen's mind snapped. _Wake up..._ the voice in his head said faintly. _Come on... He killed your parents, Zen... don't you want to make him pay for that? Come on, Shigemura..._ _ **WAKE UP.**_

Zen's eyes flew open, and everything cleared. His blood roared in his head like a landslide.

Zen murmured something.

"What was that?" Chrome asked him, leaning closer.

"I'll kill you," Zen murmured. He snapped his head up and clamped his teeth over Chrome's exposed, thick neck. He bit a chunk of flesh from it, and Chrome stumbled back, surprised.

Zen lifted his head, his eyes a mixture of red and black. He let loose a guttural scream and in his veins, all his RC cells suddenly began travelling to the kakuhou in his back. Yes... he had the means to tear them apart... to scramble up their insides... so why shouldn't he? His parents were dead.

 _ **WHY SHOULD WE HOLD BACK!?**_ He thought.

The RC cells mixed together, became solid, and burst out of Zen's back, for the first time, as a thick, wet, purple and red spiked tentacle.

 _So we were right about his kagune_ , Chrome thought, backing away.

Zen screamed and the tentacle writhed, whipping across the room wildly and gashing anything unfortunate enough to be in its path.

Zen looked at Chromeskull, his eyes glowing red, his kagune aimed directly at his face. "I'm going to kill you," he said gutturally. "I'm going to tear you apart, piece by piece, and eat you, alive, fill my stomach with your rotten meat, MONSTER-!"

Zen was interrupted by a bullet thumping through the wall, through his kagune and landing in his face.

The purple and red kagune slumped, useless, and Zen fell back, blood pooling to the floor.

Chromeskull got up, dusting off his suit. He glared at the fallen boy.

"Boss..." said Wattari. "That kagune was just like-"

"I know," Chrome said as more bullets blasted through the house. "Come on, let's leave. We don't want to play around here."

"But what about the kid?"

"The hunters will finish him off."

"And his kakuhou?"Kuusou asked, who was holding his arm that had been struck by Zen's kagune.

"We don't have to worry about that. The hunters despise ghouls, and everything about them. They won't take his kakuhou. They'll burn his body and we'll be in the clear." He turned and looked at their now cracked masks. He shook his head and picked up the box of vials.

"Let's go."

XXX

"Come on!" Yelled Karo. "I spotted one going into the Shigemura house!"

Damn, thought Ouji, huffing as he ran down the hill. Zen, be careful, you idiot.

Karo stopped at the edge of the house, listened through the wall and nodded. He loaded his assault rifle and fired through the wood, into the house and hopefully killing the ghoul.

The other men of the Karyuudo family burst in through the front door, guns pointed out.

"Oh, my god," Karo's brother said.

Ouji pushed past them and widened his eyes at the sight.

Blood was all over the floor, and in the back lay the corpse of Kaname Shigemura, dozens of stab wounds over his body. Next to him lay the corpse of- oh dear god, was that Suzuya? Her head was almost completely gone, lying in bits on the floor.

Ouji's younger cousin retched at the sight. Even Karo seemed shocked.

Ouji's father walked over, inspecting the corpses. He saw the shriveled kagune sticking from the woman's back. "She was a ghoul. We were neighboring a ghoul all this time."

"What do you think happened here?" Ouji's uncle asked.

Karo shook his head. "Those ghouls we saw come in earlier must have done this."

"H-hey," Ouji's cousin said. "There's one more..."

Zen rushed to where his cousin was standing and widened his eyes at the sight he was subjected to.

He saw Zen lying there, a gaping wound in his stomach and his half opened eyes glowing a dull red. A single, thick purple tentacle filled with fleshy thorns lay shriveling and limp next to him, protruding from his back. The redness within the tentacle flickered red like it was supporting his life.

Ouji stood there, his eyes wide and his mouth open.

"Ouji?" His cousin asked. "What's wrong?"

"Leave him," Karo spat. "The delusional boy just can't believe his 'friend', is a ghoul." He looked at Ouji. "Get over it. I told you, ghouls live in our society secretly. It's our job to smoke them out and kill them."

Ouji didn't move a muscle, but his mouth closed when he started to piece things together at light speed.

"Karo," Ouji's uncle murmured. "He's still alive."

"What?"

"It's faint, but he has a pulse."

Karo held up his assault rifle and loaded it. "Scum," he whispered.

Ouji blinked, saw what his father was doing and grabbed his shoulder, pulled him back. "STOP!" He yelled.

Karo snarled and pushed his son back. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Ouji held his rifle in one hand and held the other one up. "Listen to me," he said. "Zen isn't a ghoul."

"What!?"

"I mean, he is, but I don't think he even knew until tonight."

"What are you saying!?"

"Listen. This all fits. All the questions I've been asking myself about Zen make sense now. So, both his parents are ghouls, right? Well, ever since I've known him, Zen has eaten human food, and he has never spit it up after. Ghouls need to do that, don't they?"

"Ouji-" his uncle said, a look of pity in his eyes.

"But," Ouji interrupted, "he started saying things had been tasting weird from today. He said he has this condition since birth, and needs to take pills to keep himself healthy. But I think those are just improved RC suppressants, designed to keep him human! It explains so much. He had no _idea he was a ghoul_."

Karo snarled. "Are you done? Good." He pulled Ouji's collar and snarled into his face. "Now, I don't know what the hell you're on about, but if you're suggesting that we don't kill this ghoul, you can shove that idea right up your ass."

"If you'd just listen, you old man-" Ouji said with gritted teeth.

"WE ARE THE KARYUUDO!" Karo yelled. "The hunters! Born to kill ghouls! If you're saying that we shouldn't, you are not fit to be a hunter! You can just stay at home with the women and _cook!_ "

"Have you ever wondered WHY we hunt ghouls!?" Ouji spat. "It's because they hurt people! They eat and kill! And I don't know about you, but I have never killed a ghoul who hasn't hurt because they needed to! And Zen isn't one of them!"

Karo yelled and punched his son in the face, sending him to the floor. "We hunt and kill ghouls," Karo said, rubbing his knuckles, "regardless of crime, age or race. They are vermin, that need extermination. Something you fail to understand. Brother, finish this one off."

Ouji's uncle nodded and pointed his rifle at Zen. The gears in Ouji's head clicked, and faster than anyone could follow, he rolled in front of Zen's limp body, sat up in a crouch and aimed his rifle at his uncle.

"Don't," he warned.

Ouji's cousin whipped out his rifle and pointed it at Ouji. "Stop pointing that _fucking_ gun at my dad, Ouji," he quivered.

Ouji's eyes were narrowed like steel. He didn't even flinch.

"Are you completely out of your mind!?" Karo yelled, also pointing his rifle at his son. "I could ban you permanently from hunting for this!"

Ouji's eyes darted to his father. "I won't hurt my friend."

The moment his eyes moved, Ouji's loaded his gun, prepared to fire at Zen.

"NO!" Ouji yelled, and before he could even think, he shot his uncle twice in the shoulder.

Karo's brother went down, clutching his shoulder as his blood and shards of bone pooled onto the floor.

"DAD!" Ouji's cousin yelled, and dropped the rifle. He ran to his father, who was still screaming.

Karo fell to his knees and held his brother in his arms, yelling his name again and again, telling him they were going to get him out of there.

Ouji's eyes were widened in horror. He reached a hand out to his uncle, but was stopped.

"DONT YOU DARE TOUCH HIM!" Karo screamed. "IF YOU DO, I WILL KILL YOU!"

Ouji closed his hand in a fist and pulled back sharply.

Karo lifted his still screaming brother up and looked at his son. "Ouji," he said, "you just saved the vermin we kill. You proved where your allegiance lies. You are no longer a Karyuudo. No longer a hunter. You would rather choose such filth over your own blood."

Ouji gritted his teeth and pointed the rifle at them, tears streaming down his face.

"If this is what you want to do," Karo continued, "then do it. I won't stop your sins anymore. But don't bother coming home. Leave here, with your ghoul pet. When he kills anyone, it will be on _your_ conscience. And if you ever come back here, I will shoot you death myself."

Without even another word, or even a gesture, Karo turned and ran as fast as he could out of the house with his brother in his arms.

Ouji's cousin glanced at him once, too fast to make out how- with pity, hate, or shame- Ouji would never know.

Then he turned and sprinted after Karo, and left Ouji alone with an unconscious ghoul.

Ouji screamed, louder than he ever had, sending birds flying. He snarled and pointed his rifle at Zen. He felt the anger bubble beneath him, his finger on the trigger. He looked at the bloodstained, unconscious body of his friend and shook, pressing the barrel to his head.

Then he slumped forward, panting. He looked at his hands.

He couldn't do it. He could not shoot his friend.

XXX

 _ **In nature, there is no such thing as sympathy.**_


	2. CELL 02: ACCEPTANCE OF THE SINS

Zen felt like he was drowned in cold, cold water. He saw a man in a suit killing his parents, and behind the man stood another Zen.

The other Zen looked at the first Zen with wide, scarlet eyes, emotionless, and whispered two words:

" _ **Eat them**_."

Zen's heartbeat rose instantly, about to burst in his chest. His eyes cracked open, and he saw a slate grey sky blocked by trees. He was outside, lying on a blanket of snow.

He heard something clicking and turned his slowly, to see a young man in a black jacket sitting next to a small fire, loading a handgun.

"Ouji?" He croaked.

Ouji looked at him with sorrowful eyes. "So, you're awake," he said dully.

"What... what's going on? Where am I?"

"We're in the woods, just a little bit away from your house."

Zen struggled to get up, and felt a searing pain in his head. He touched it, felt something sticky.

"Careful," Ouji said. "You were shot in the head."

Zen groaned, then widened his eyes. He looked at Ouji, who was staring emotionlessly back.

"What happened, Ouji? Why are we in the woods?"

Ouji kept his gaze level. "You don't remember?"

Zen shook his head, then widened his eyes, the events of last night returning way, way too suddenly. He looked at Ouji, horrified. "M-my parents are dead."

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

Zen gritted his teeth and tears streamed down his face. "That man in the suit... Chromeskull."

"Is that what he calls himself?"

"Yeah." Zen touched his head again, and looked down the hill where his house lay. "Someone did shoot me. Why!?"

"Excuse me?"

"I was just about to kill him! I was going to rip his eyes out, stab him open and crush his heart! Then someone shot me right in the head! Who did it!? Who shot me!?"

"I'll tell you, Zen. But before I do... did you know you were a ghoul?"

"What the hell are you talking about!?"

Ouji looked at Zen's raging face carefully. "Zen, do you remember what you were going to stab Chromeskill with?"

"What? I was going to stab him with a- a-!" Zen stopped suddenly and touched the bottom of his spine. He felt something shift underneath his skin.

That's right... the voice in his head told him. He looked at his friend, who had a blank face, simply observing how Zen would react.

"O-Ouji..."

"I think you need to see something, Zen," Ouji said. He took out his phone and gave it to him.

Zen held up the phone shakily to his face and looked at his reflection. His eyes.

The irises were red as blood, and the sclera were black, cracking into his skin.

Zen screamed and threw the phone into the snow, touching his eyes in horror.

Ouji looked at his friend carefully and spoke. "Zen, I have to tell you something."

Zen looked at him, unable to speak.

Ouji filled his cheeks with air and blew it out. "Okay, so you obviously don't know. I was really, really worried I was wrong, but I'm not. You're a ghoul."

"You don't know what you're talking about, Ouji..." But at the same time, the voice in his head spoke. _Listen to him. Accept the truth,_ it commanded.

"Just listen, Zen. You couldn't have known, but you really are a ghoul. Your parents fed you RC suppressants, really powerful ones, and they somehow... I don't know, made you human. But they stopped working, and your ghoul side came out. This somehow attracted the ghoul in the yellow suit, and he... killed your parents."

Zen snarled and grabbed his head, but the voice would not shut up.

 _It's the truth,_ the voice said. _Do you get it now!? You were almost able to kill him! But because of someone shooting you, you couldn't! Your parents' corpses are probably still there, Zen! You feeling hungry yet!? Scavenge!_ _**EAT THEM!**_

Zen screamed and ran down the hill, whipping past the trees. Ouji called for him, but Zen ran too fast.

He could hear everything. The beat of the birds wings, the squirrels hibernating, the foxes scavenging. Why!? Why was this happening!?

Zen crashed into a tree when a blanket of snow clouded his vision. He snarled, rushed the tree, and it split in two as he passed through it, still running.

 _Yeah,_ the voice said. _Stronger, aren't you? You can get even stronger, you know..._

Zen ran until he saw his house. He gasped at the state of the thing - there was a gaping space in the ceiling, and bullet holes peppered the walls like wounds. Zen ran down the hill frantically, tripping twice, but he didn't care. He yanked the door, and it jammed. Desperate, he grabbed the sides and wrenched the door from its hinges. He threw it aside and ran in, shouting.

"Mom? Dad?" He yelled.

They're dead, you twat, the voice said.

"No," Zen muttered. "No. They have to be here."

Zen ran further into the dark house, and gasped at what he saw.

The walls, floor, furniture, ceiling... everything had been torn apart like someone had come in with a knife and cut it all up. Zen stumbled slowly inside and called out despite himself. "Mom?" He called. "Dad?" He stepped in something squishy and widened his eyes.

Zen looked down oh-so-slowly, and saw he was stepping in a pool of blood. Zen looked further ahead...

And there lay the corpses of his parents. His father had countless stab wounds all ober his body, and his mother... oh god, his mother... her head was lying in pieces.

Zen dropped to his knees, horrified. The voice had stopped now as well. It wasn't going to let him be distracted. It was going to let him revel in the sight of gore and blood. Zen scratched the floor in anger, and the wood broke.

Ouji huffed as he reached the house, rifle haphazardly hidden. As he stepped in the house, he saw Zen sittimg there, tears streaming down his face, clawing at the wood.

Zen felt all the rage, sorrow, and guilt bubble beneath him, and just let go of it all.

He threw his head back and gave the loudest, longest, most inhuman scream of sorrow Ouji would ever hear. Zen desperately crawled to his parents, and Ouji ran for him, pinning him down.

"Ouji, you bastard!" Zen yelled. "Let me go! NOW!"

Ouji held his friend down, and it was alot of effort.

"Look!" Ouji yelled. "There's no point in going to them! They're dead, Zen!"

With a roar of anger, Zen threw Ouji back and ran to his parents.

Ouji flew across the room and slammed into a coffee table. He groaned and looked up at his friend. Zen sat there, face contorted, fingers digging into the sides of his head. He continued to scream and sob, wanting to reach out to his parents and wake them.

What now..? He thought. I... nothing's left... I... I can't...

 _Shut the hell up and quit your bitching,_ The voice in his head said. Zen looked up, and an identical bersion of him with red eyes and reverse - colored clothes stood, looking down at him with contempt.

 _What's wrong with you?_ The doppelganger asked. _Is it that they're dead? Get over it. Be more flexible, more able to accept things. You are a GHOUL. Nothing will change that. Just accept it, move on, and tear that mask-wearing freak into raw meat..._ he laughed. _**And eat all of it.**_

Reverse-Zen disappeared, leaving the real Zen alone. But what just occured gave him something.

Zen got up, looked at the bodies of his parents and turned, steel in his bones, blood boiling. He had a plan. It was half-assed. Reckless. Insane. But simple.

Pretend the anger was power. Turn the shaking of his shoulders from fear into excitement. Cover the anxiety on his face with a smile.

For a moment, Zen's eyes glowed the most unbearable red, then diluted and returned to their natural color. Without even a backwards glance, Shigemura Zen walked out of the house that once was his home, for the last bloody time.

XXX

When Ouji's head stopped pounding, he looked up to see Zen calmly walk out the door. He was about to get up and punch him in the face, but he saw something in his friend's eyes. Theye were back to normal, but beyond that... there was a resolve. An insane, steely, bloodthirsty need for revenge.

Ouji eventually got up. He was in no hurry. He propped himself up with his rifle, and when he stepped out of the door, he saw Zen doing nothing... just looking up at the grey sky. Ouji stepped up to him, said nothing, for nothing needed to he said on his end.

"I need to leave the woods," Zen said eventually. "Find out more about who my parents were."

Ouji frowned. "You beleived me that easily?" When Zen said nothing, Ouji nodded cautiously. "Okay. We can get out of here soon enough."

Zen looked at him, and beneath the bloodlust, Ouji saw some familiar ripples of surprise.

"What do you mean 'We'?" Zen asked.

Ouji breathed out slowly. "I'm coming with you."

"You don't need to. You have family here. I... don't."

Ouji glanced at him. "No, I don't. My family disowned me."

"What? When?"

"That's not important. When we get going, I'll tell you."

"I don't need you to come with me, Ouji."

"Like hell. You'll eventually need meat again. Where are you gonna get it? It's my fault you're still alive. I'm not gonna let any blood you spill get on my hands. I need to rein you in time to time."

Zen looked at him forever, then finally spoke. "I'm gonna need a full explanation later. Fine. You can come. But first, we need to burn my house."

"What? Why would you-?" He stopped, nodded slowly. "Okay. I get it. Let's get some of your stuff and make our way out of here."

"No."

"No?"

"We burn this house. The stuff inside it. The past will not come back to haunt me."

"But if you just get some of your clothes and stuff-"

"WE BURN IT ALL!" Zen suddenly snapped.

Ouji stopped. He regarded his friend and nodded. He strolled into the house, brought out a handgun and shot the large gas tank behind the bathroom. Clear gas leaked out as Ouji made his way out of the corridor. He stopped in front of Zen's parents' corpses and knelt. Despite what Zen had said, he pulled the silver locket from Kaname's neck.

"Wish us luck," he whispered to the corpses and got up, leaving.

He walked over and outside to Zen, who was waiting for him. He handed him the handgun.

"The gas tank in yoir house is leaked out. You should do it."

Zen observed the handgun for a long time, and for a moment Ouji thought he wouldn't do it. But then Zen pointed the gun at his former home, and thumbed back the hammer.

Ouji widened his eyes and dived for the ground, covering his ears. Zen had no such qualms.

He narrowed his eyes, breathed, and pulled the trigger.

XXX

Zen stood facing away from his still - burning house as his friend finished packing his handgun in a duffel bag.

The bullet fired by the junior marksman ignited the gas and made the house ho up in a huge fireball, along with Zen's parents, but he felt nothing. He didn't even look back to see the fire.

"Here," Ouji said, handing Zen a dark jacket lined with purplish-red and black. "I picked it up before. I don't need it."

Zen observed the jacket, nodded and pulled it on witjout a word. He didn't even glance at his old jacket as he tossed it into the fire behind him. He pulled on a beanie, but the voice was back.

Ouji filled his cheeks with air and blew it out. "So, I guess that's that, huh?"

Zen nodded. "No going back now." They didn't know it, but those words were hard on both of them.

"Zen," Ouji asked quietly. "Don't you want to know who shot you?"

Zen's answer surprised Ouji. "I trust you enough to tell me later." He sighed.

"So where do we go now?" Zen asked.

Ouji looked at his friend, then turned his gaze to the side, where the city of Tokyo rested.

"Land of opportunity over there," Ouji said. "And danger. We should be able to get leads there about your parents, if they worked t0in the area." It was inappropriate, but he still asked.

"Are you ready for Tokyo, ghoul?"

Any other situation, Zen would have been disgusted at a joke like this. But he had changed. A hint of a smile played on his lips, and the two gunners walked their way to a new beginning. It was still too early, but... hope seemed like it was beginning to shine, for the first time in a long, long night.

XXX

 _ **The creature known as man is made up seven deadly sins. When one traverses these sins... one is longer a man, but something beyond all comprehension.**_


	3. CELL 03: RUN BY DEMONS

It wasn't a very fun walk to Tokyo. Zen was keeping silent, so Ouji did too. It was almost like a competition between the two. But the silence eventually came to an end.

"So where are we going?" Zen asked.

"I have a cousin in Tokyo," Ouji said. "She and her boyfriend have an apartment in the outskirts of the city."

"She lives with her boyfriend?"

"No," Ouji said, a smile playing on his lips. "Her boyfriend lives with her."

Zen nodded. There was a question nagging him, and he finally got the steam to ask it.

"Ouji," Zen said.

"Yeah?"

Zen took a breath and stopped walking. "What's the story with your family?"

Ouji stopped. He turned around slowly, looked his friend in the eyes. All he got in return was steely resolve.

Ouji sighed and continued walking. "My family has a long history with ghouls."

Zen walked after him. "Meaning?"

Ouji hesitated. He had never explained this to anyone before, ever. It was a strict rule that he didn't. But that didn't matter anymore... right?

"My family, the Karyuudo," he said. "The word literally means 'Hunter'. I'm not sure about how exactly, but back, and I mean way back, my great grandfather's entire family was slaughtered by ghouls. This was before the CCG, when ghouls were just starting to surface and we had no protection against them. Somehow, the old man who was still arounf our age at the time, escaped. He saw his family fight back, and apparently saw that nothing could break their skin, or even cause them remote pain. He saw their red eyes, and saw how they... ate people. He thought they were some sort of demon, because he was, you know, really traditional amd believed in that kind of stuff."

"And?" Zen asked attentively.

"So, he worked for a few years. He had no family left, no money, and no help. So he went into this temple on top of this hill, or some jungle, I forget, where he trained. He practiced with hitting boulders until they cracked. In three years or so, he came back down and found the group of ghouls. And he... killed them all. With a sword dipped in fresh acid, he killed 'em all. After that, he changed his name to Karyuudo, and came back to civilization, where he proved himself, became the best fighter, blah blah, won my great grandmother. They trained their kids and drilled it into their heads that ghouls were evil demons sent by hell itself. And those teachings kept going on, till now."

Zen nodded slowly and took in this mass of information. "So, you and your family hunt ghouls?"

Ouji hesitated. "Yeah, I guess I could've just said that. Sorry. I've just never explained this to anyone before."

"Then what were those guns? Bullets have very little effect on ghouls, don't they?"

Ouji reached into his pocket and threw Zen a bullet. The Shigemura caught it. It was a normal assault rifle bullet, but modified. Grooves spun all around the bullet like waves in the metal, and the tip was extremely sharp, more than it should have been.

"We don't use normal bullets. We spend hours modifying those bullets so that they affect ghouls like we need them to. Use one of them on a normal person, and the bullet will go straight through them and the person behind them."

They kept their pace.

"But what about... those things? The glowing stuff they get from ghouls' bodies?"

Ouji shook his head. "We don't use quinques. Using a demon's weapon against them doesn't make us any better than them." He stopped suddenly. "I'm sorry. That came out wrong."

"It's alright." Zen murmured. "That's fine." He touched the bottom of his spine, and felt his 'kagune' squirm underneath lightly. It made him feel just a little disgusted.

"So all the Karyuudo are ghoul hunters?" Zen asked,

"Yeah," Ouji replied. "All the men end up in the same hole, whether they like it or not."

Zen smirked. "Just the men?"

"Yes," Ouji said, completely serious.

"I was kidding." Zen said, frowning. "What, are women not allowed to hunt, or something?"

"Actually, that's exactly it." He hesitated. "My family has modernized, mostly, but we treat the women in the family differently. For us, all the women are supposed to do are cook and and work. They aren't even allowed to get married."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. The rule is 'serve the Karyuudo'. The women are supposed to serve the men in their needs." He tilted his head and gave Zen a smile. "All their needs, if you get what I mean."

"That's unsettling, to think there's still people out there who think like that. But I never thought you'd be part of something like that."

Ouji smiled. "I think about it all the time. I guess I'm lucky to be a guy. The women were getting lessons on how to at least defend themselves against ghouls, but that all stopped a few years ago."

"Why?"

"My cousin, the one we're going to see, she was my dad's brother's daughter. They taught her to defend herself against ghouls, and she was damn good at it. I remember, she was better than all of us put together. When she finally got the nerve to tell everyone she wanted to be a hunter like everyone else... it didn't end well."

"What happened?"

"They... beat her. Told her it wasn't her place to hunt, that she was just a woman. They... beat her too hard that night. I think something stretched or broke or something, because she got paralyzed on the left side. She screamed for days."

Zen stayed silent, but inside, the voice was laughing.

"I'm pretty sure they would have smothered her eventually to put her out of her misery, but her dad said he wanted to keep her going, so she would 'learn her lesson'. Her little brother, who's around my age, never questioned him ever again, and even though he sucks at hunting and hates it, he still goes on because he's too afraid of my uncle."

Ouji turned to face his companion and Zen saw the shadow of something dark and ugly over his eyes.

"My family is twisted and dark, Zen. It's always been this way. I always envied you and your parents. You were always so... content. But that's the destiny of the Karyuudo. The women toil and work and die, and the men hunt and marry and bring in more women. It's sick. But who's gonna do anything about it? Zen? Hey, Zen."

He looked back and saw Zen standing a few meters away, his back turned. He was staring at the country of forest they had walked here from.

Zen turned slowly to Ouji, his eyes red and wide. His shoulders were shaking and his fists were clenched and his teeth were gritted.

 _All this has been happening right down the road!?_ He thought.

 _Damn right,_ The voice said.

 _Sick...sick bastards... there's too much shit in this world..._

Ouji laid his hand instinctively on his handgun holster beneath his jacket. "Zen? Zen. Come on, man. Calm down. It's behind us."

Zen pointed at Ouji. "I promise you now, Karyuudo Ouji. When all this is over, when we have solved my parents' murder, we are going right back to your house and beating some goddamn sense into those _**fucking bastards**_."

Ouji stepped back, taken aback by the sudden personality change. No, more of a voice change. It was still Zen, but more resolved. More bloodthirsty.

Ouji put up his hands. "Zen, calm down."

" _ **NO!**_ " He stopped and clutched his head suddenly.

 _Stop talking for me..._ he thought. The red in his eyes went away and returned to their normal brown.

"I'm... sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have snapped."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he looked up. "But I meant every word. When this is done, we are going back to show your family some sense."

Ouji took his hand off the handgun slowly. "Let's get to Tokyo first, huh?"

Zen nodded and they walked in silence again. Eventually it got ominous, though, and just had to be broken.

"So your cousin... why is she in Tokyo?"

Ouji didn't want to answer, but anything that avoided another Crazy Zen episode was more than welcome.

"Well..." he said. "After she got beat and paralyzed, she was in alot of pain. She only stopped screaming a few days later, but getting better took months. When she finally got better, she found out that she was forbidden from leaving the house anymore and that her little brother had already started hunting, even though he hated it. So she trained herself until she was physically perfect, but she was never the same. Then suddenly, one night, she just packed her things and... ran. Came here. She left a note and gave her word not to speak about the Karyuudo. Defense lessons for the women stopped soon after. And now... I'm in the same boat as her, for rescuing you."

Zen stayed silent. As they entered the city, Ouji zipped up his jacket, hiding his handguns. He took apart his rifle and stuffed the pieces in his backpack. Zen had nothing on him. It felt weird.

He marveled at the largeness of the city. The place was bigger up close than he had ever imagined. Ouji suddenly stopped and pushed Zen back slightly.

"Alright, Shigemura," he said, "we need to set some ground rules. Firstly, no kagune. If something happens, or you have to fight, either get out of it, or fight normally. But if anyone sees those tendrils, we're both screwed. Secondly, if you think your eyes are going to turn red, get out of sight, hide your eyes, wear sunglasses or something, and tell me. And thirdly, the most hard, make sure you feed yourself."

Zen looked away.

"Just listen, Zen. I know about a spot where suicide victims are found. I'll get you the bodies. But you have to eat. I know it must be hard to accept, but-"

"I get it," Zen said. "I'll eat human flesh. Don't worry."

Ouji stopped. No way it had been that easy. No way.

"Alright," the Karyuudo nodded. "My cousin lives in this Ward. Let's get to her apartment."

They walked for about another half hour, sticking close to each other, Zen taking away the beanie and pulling up his hood. He looked at the people around him with wide eyes. Since the emergence of his ghoul side, he was seeing people differently. He could see the heat in their bodies. It was suddenly like he'd been starved and was standing in a field of roast, juicy, marinated chicken.

"Flower, sir?" Came a voice.

Zen looked down. Sitting down on the floor outside a store, was a little girl in dirty and torn pink clothes. She was smiling, looking at the floor and holding a flower up at him.

Zen stared at her with wide, hungry eyes. He licked his lips. She was thin. He wondered how the taste of her crackling bones would be in his mouth. Something suddenly dripped from his mouth and he realized it was drool. He looked up at the store window and saw his eyes were glowing red.

He hurriedly pulled his hood tight over his face, gasping. He breathed fast and panicked. If someone saw his eyes, then the CCG would be all over him.

"Sir?" The girl asked, looking up. Zen looked, immediately afraid she had seen his eyes, but stopped when he saw the blindfold over her eyes. She was blind. He stated down at her smiling face, the only thing that was keeping him calm, the only face he could look directly at, and the brown replaced the red again.

Hands suddenly grabbed his shoulders. It was Ouji. The Karyuudo grabbed the flower with a smile and a "Thank you," before storming off, still holding Zen. He pushed him into a dark alley, and Zen collapsed against the wall, gasping and coughing retching. He had just craved flesh, and it was disgusting. He clutched the wall in panic, and the brick crumbled and grooves were left on the concrete where he clawed the hard surface. He coughed and retched, attempting to get the hunger out, but it did nothing.

"Are you getting hungry again?" Ouji asked.

Zen shook his head frantically.

"Don't lie to me! Shit... fight it down, Zen! There's nothing around here you can eat. When this is over, I swear, I will get you food."

Zen screamed and punched the wall. Bricks exploded and fell to the ground. He looked up and stared at the sky. A pure thing, of nothing but beautiful gray. He swallowed and commanded his body, and the hunger was pushed back slightly.

"If you were starving and left in a field of roast food, would you be able to stop yourself, Ouji?" Zen asked, throat dry.

"Is that what it's like for you?" Ouji asked.

"Yeah."

Ouji nodded and put an arm around his friend's shoulders. "Then we should avoid being around people. Come on. It'll take more time, but at least you won't get hungry." He led him through the dark alley, and they walked that way until they were going through a less crowded area. Hookers and quiet druggies stared at them. They weren't in a good part of town.

No one bothered them, however. They kept walking and got out of the alley. Zen pushed Ouji off, declaring himself capable of walking. Ouji shrugged at his friend's stubborness and they walked down the street. It was less crowded here, and graffiti decorated many of the walls. Zen followed Zen to a tall building. They walked right in, and were greeted by welcome heating. They went right past reception and waited for the elevator. Zen reached for the button, but Ouji caught his hand.

"You know, maybe I should push the button," he said, "you know, because I can't break it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, good call," Zen said. The doors dinged open lightly and they walked in, a girl holding a box in there with them.

Ouji pressed 16 on the elevator panel, and gave the girl an openly flirtatious smile. The girl smirked back, checking him out. Zen didn't understand how girls fell for that homosexual grin.

"I'm Ouji," he said. "And you are?"

"Out of your league," Zen muttered.

The girl laughed. "That's funny. I'm Yumi. You live here, 'Ouji'?"

"Nah. I'm just here to meet my cousin. She lives on the sixteenth floor."

"I guessed."

"You know her?"

"No. You just pressed that number."

"Ah. And you? Do you live here?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose. Me and my family. I just came to get some stuff. We're having a party tonight, my birthday."

"Oh?"

"Yep. The big one-six. Big stuff planned. Lots of friends coming over, the whole works."

"Cool. If you need help, the two of us are staying here."

Zen frowned at his friend. What was he doing?

"I thought you were just visiting?" Yumi smiled suspiciously.

"Well, yeah, but we left home. We need to crash somewhere, and my cousin's should do for now."

"Huh. You guys should come over, you know, if you're free."

Ouji smiled. "Yeah, that'd be nice."

"Cool. Now, you should probably get out of the way."

"Um... what?"

"Oh, sorry. I just meant, this is my floor." The doors dinged open. She stepped out and turned to the guys, the box big in her arms. "Nice flower," she said as the doors closed. As soon as they did, Zen broke into a fit of laughter.

Ouji hurriedly reached for his head, and found the small purple flower the blind girl gave him behind his ear.

"Shit," he said, twirling it in his fingers. "She probably thought I was gay the whole time."

"Dude, everyone thinks that. Your hair practically screams it."

"Shut up. We're here." The doors opened again, and they stepped out of the elevator and into a plush, red-carpeted corridor.

"Remember," Ouji whispered as they walked, "don't let either of them figure out you're a ghoul. If you do, we're both screwed to hell."

Zen nodded and they stopped in front of a brown door labeled 12. Ouji knocked and a muffled voice came answering.

"Who is it?"

"Someone with no other choice!" Ouji answered.

Footsteps came across the floor inside and the door opened. Standing in the doorway, a hand on her hip, was a very pretty, 20 something year old girl with short brown hair, dressed in blue jeans and a white turtleneck. She put a hand on her hip and smiled.

"Well, well, well," she said. "Ouji Karyuudo. What brings you here?"

"Long story," Ouji replied. "You gonna let us in?"

She laughed and moved out of the way, and Zen couldn't help but feel a strange mixture of terror and light arousing hunger. Terror from possibly getting caught by this girl, and the arousing hunger from... well, her. She was already very pretty, but for a ghoul, especially a new one with raging hormones like Zen's, it was a different story altogether. He could sense the heat of her body, and could tell just by the way her clothes shifted when she moved that she was hiding an impressive body underneath all that fabric. Zen licked his lips at the thought, then inwardly slapped himself. He made sure his hood was tight over his head, just in case he slipped.

They walked into the living room, and both boys were impressed. There was a wide TV on one wall, and around it was a wide, open balcony closed off by a series of huge sliding glass doors. A brown, plush carpet decorated the floor.

Ouji whistled. "Damn. Wish my room was like this."

A guy on the couch got up and hurried over to meet them. He was in a t-shirt, despite the cold weather, and he had light skin and blond hair.

"Well," he said, "I didn't know you were into little guys, babe."

The woman sighed. "He's my cousin, moron. Ouji, my boyfriend, John. John, Ouji Karyuudo." At the sound of that name, John's smile faded.

"Karyuudo? They're from your dad's side of the family?" He looked at Ouji with open hostility. "Sorry, you aren't welcome here." He began herding them out the door.

"Whoa, relax," Ouji's cousin said, stepping in front of him. "Ouji's that 'good cousin' I was talking about, remember?"

John stopped. "You mean that horny twelvie of a cousin you were talking about?"

"Yeah! Exactly the same."

"Gee, thanks, cuz," Ouji said. The two boys walked back into the living room.

The guy, John, scratched the back of his head and chuckled nervously. "Sorry. I just know how hard your cousin's family was on her. I just kinda snapped."

"No problem, " Ouji smiled. "I probably would have done the same."

The woman threw her arms around John's neck from behind and whispered, "Oh, you care so much about me. But seriously, if it were my dad or my uncle or my grandfather, any three of them would have kicked your ass."

"Oh, come on! Your granddad?"

"It's true," Ouji said as they all sat in the soft couches. Zen and Ouji sat in one, and John sat in his chair. The woman got on her knees behind him.

"And who's this?" She asked, nodding to Zen. Before he could even say anything, Ouji piped up.

"This is Shigemura Zen. My friend. He came with me here, and we were planning on, you know, bunking together."

"I'm surprised uncle Karo even let you come here. I'm Karin."

"Hi," Zen said. If he said any more, he was afraid he would blurt out something like, "You smell delicious!"

"So, little prince," Karin asked, "what brings you here? I haven't seen you since I ran away! Your emails don't say much. Tell me, how's everything? Have you got any girlfriends yet? What's new in life?"

Ouji and Zen looked at each other.

"Well," Ouji said, "my dad disowned me from the Karyuudo family, for starters."

Karin went silent disbelievingly. But when his face didn't shift, she knew her little cousin wasn't just playing some sick joke.

"Oh my god, Ouji," she said, coming around and grabbing his hand. "What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Ouji said with a straight face, not even glancing at Zen. Zen was impressed with his friend's skills at this stuff.

"How-How did it happen!?" Karin demanded. "Why would your father send you away from the family?"

"It's a long story," Ouji said quietly. "And most of it isn't even mine."

Zen looked away.

"Not your-?" Karin stopped suddenly, and came all close and looked her cousin in the eyes. "Ouji, I hope you didn't get banished because of me."

"What? No, no, nothing like that."

"Then what? Don't give me that bullshit about you not wanting to talk about it!"

He looked her dead in the eyes, and said calmly: "I let a ghoul live."

Karin leant back. "You did what? Why-Why would you even do that?"

Ouji took a deep breath. "It was little. Scared. Just a kid. I felt sorry for it, so I let it escape."

Zen stared at Ouji. Liar. How could he even-?

"Oh, Ouji..." Karin said and wrapped him in a hug. Zen sat there awkwardly. He looked at John, who just shrugged.

"Uh, cuz?" Ouji said. "It's okay. I've had a whole night to get over this." She stopped hugging him and stared in disbelief.

"All this happened last night?"

Ouji gulped. "Yeah. There's something else. When I was letting that ghoul escape, your dad was about to shoot it, and I couldn't let it get hurt... and..." he looked up, and tears welled up in his eyes. "I shot him, Karin. I shot uncle. I'm sorry."

She stared at him and everyone sat still, not making a single sound.

"Is he alive?" Karin asked eventually, completely calm.

"Yeah. I snuck into the house to get some stuff, and I heard my dad talking. Apparently all he has is mass blood loss and a shattered shoulder frame."

Karin stayed silent for a while, then looked up and smiled casually. "That's a shame. You should have killed him." She grabbed his shoulders. "Listen to me little prince: do not feel guilty about what you've done. That ghoul may have gotten away, but that man is a hundred times worse. You know... you know what he did to me. Him..."

"And my dad," Ouji finished. "Don't worry, cuz. If you say I shouldn't, no way in hell am I gonna feel guilty about this." Karin laughed and hugged Ouji.

"And what about your friend?" She whispered into his ear. "Does he know what we're talking about?"

"Yes," Zen said, hearing every word. "I know the Karyuudo are ghoul hunters."

Karin looked him up and down. "I see. And why are you here, with Ouji? You supporting each other?"

"Something like that," Ouji said. "Zen's parents were killed by the ghouls we were hunting last night."

"Oh my god," Karin said, looking at Zen. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. You didn't do it." Zen smiled.

Karin let out a shaky laugh and got up, walking back to her boyfriend's chair. She sat at the foot of it, and he began playing with her hair out of pure habit.

"So what do you two need?"

"Okay," Ouji said, "since I was banished, we came here to try and solve Zen's parents' murder. While we do that, we need a placeto stay."

Karin bit her thumb. "Why don't you just report this to the CCG?"

Ouji shook his head. "It's not that-"

"We know the CCG won't do anything about it," Zen interrupted, "and that they're already busy with a dozen other, more important ghoul cases. So we want to take them down ourselves. And kill the bastards."

That wasn't entirely true. The reason they couldn't report this to the Commission of Counter-Ghoul was because this was an isolated incident that could possibly lead to the discovery of the Karyuudo family's antics, the reveal that Zen was a ghoul, and plus, the CCG didn't bother with ghouls killing one another. And the last, unspoken thing, was that the two friends needed to figure out the secret of Zen's medicine, and why his parents had so desperately wanted to keep him human.

Karin sighed. "I admire your guts and your goal, but tell me, do you even have anything to go on?"

"They wear skull masks." Zen said, before Ouji could stop him.

Karin widened her eyes and stopped biting her thumb. She stared at them.

"You mean the Warehouse?" She asked.

"You know them?" Ouji and Zen asked eagerly at the same time.

"No shit! The Warehouse is a group of the most twisted ghouls in all of Tokyo! Maybe even Japan! They do sick experiments on humans and ghouls alike. You are crazy to try and kill them. There are literally hundreds of them!"

"We're not after all of them," Zen said. "Just three. Two lackeys and their boss. Wattari, Kuusou and Chromeskull."

Karin shook her head. "Never heard of them. But if they suddenly die, then the rest if the Warehouse will come after you two. And you have no idea how twisted they are. Either of you."

"Believe me," Zen growled, "we do, very well."

Karin stared at them both, and found nothing but determination and an unquenchable thirst for blood. She sighed. "There's nothing I can do to talk you out of this, is there?"

They shook their heads.

"Fine, I won't stop you two. What do you need?"

"A place to stay," Ouji said immediately. "I give you my word, we won't do anything too stupid, but... can we stay here?"

She smiled warmly. "Of course. You two can stay here as long as you want."

Ouji sighed in relief. "Thank you, cuz. That's all we need." She nodded, glanced at her watch.

"Oh shit!" She yelled. "John, we're going to be so late! It's eight already!"

"CRAP!" The blond man yelled and they both shot up and into their room. Ouji and Zen looked at each other and laughed quietly. Five minutes later, both adults were running out of their room crazily.

"Okay," Karin said, grabbing her keys and pulling a coat on. "The Wi-Fi password is on the fridge. There's lots if food in it, and the TV's right there. You guys help yourselves. I'll see you two in a few hours!" John pulled her hand and the two of them disappeared through the doorway.

Ouji sighed. "You know what that just felt like?"

"What?" Zen asked, just trying to get the amazingly burningly sweet smell of Karin out of his head, but the whole apartment smelt like her.

"That felt like we just forgot we were here to figure out a murder, and not hang out like old times. That just made me feel like a normal teenager, and not a ghoul hunter with and anorexic ghoul friend."

"Yeah," Zen said. "It's terrible, isn't it?"

Ouji cracked a smile. "Yeah, I guess."

XXX

An hour later, the two companions were sitting outside on the wide balcony, looking down at the city of Tokyo. Ouji held out a fresh mug of coffee.

"You know I can't eat anything but humans, right?" Zen said skeptically.

"I spent my entire life studying ghouls. Trust me. Don't worry; it's just normal coffee," Ouji said.

Zen hesitated, then took the warm mug in his hands. He took a cautious sip.

"Wow," he said, "that is good. How... how did you-?"

"Ghoul physicality: unable to digest and survive off any substance other than human or ghoul flesh. For some reason, coffee has always been digestible by ghouls. No one really kmows why." Zen gulped the beautiful dark substance thirstily. So there was at least one thing keeping him rooted to his humanity.

Ouji typed something into the computer. Outside, their breaths frosted. They sat there quietly for about fifteen minutes. Zen got bored not doing anything, so he looked down over the railing and at the bustling city. He licked his lips. There were millions of people down there, and they all smelt delicious, their scents wafting up to Zen's nose. Once or twice, he caught the smell of people who smelt normal, and not edible in the slightest. But they were gone soon after. Zen's heart leapt when he smelt those people. So there were still people out there he couldn't hurt.

"Alright..." Ouji said, getting up and shutting the laptop.

"What?" Zen asked.

"Time to go try our luck."

"What!? You found Chromeskull!?"

Ouji shook his head. "No. I have to... you know... go get a... job."

Zen looked at him blankly. "What?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, it's just an interview; I should be back in a little while. The place is a few blocks away."

"Ouji, do I need to remind you that we are here to find a bunch of murderers, not... find our ways in life!?"

Ouji put up his hands. "Just relax. I need to get a job. Us being here is going to increase Karin's expenses, and-"

"Not me. I don't need to eat, remember? I won't be any problem."

"Alright, fine, I will be. And I can't just let my cousin pay for all the shit we do. I mean, we're two fifteen year old guys who ran away, one of who is probably declared missing by now! We can't just be NEETs while we solve this murder!"

"Fine!" Zen shouted.

"Are you... mhm... are you sure?" Ouji asked.

Zen sighed. "Yeah. Fine. Whatever. Let me get my jacket."

"Yeah, no. I'm going alone. You... listen, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you can handle a stable job. Your tendencies are too... unpredictable. But anyway, you don't actually need one. Me getting a job is enough."

Zen sighed, hands in his pockets as he looked out to the city. "What am I supposed to do here alone all day? There aren't even any shooting ranges here."

"While I'm out, you should do some research. See if you can find out anything about the Warehouse, but most importantly, research some stuff on ghouls. Maybe there's something on the net that'll help you figure this out and help you control yourself." Ouji opened the glass door and stepped inside. He turned to Zen. "You understand, right?"

Nothing matters. None of this matters, Zen. You know it.

Zen fought back the voice. "Yeah," he said.

XXX

Fifteen minutes later, Ouji was gone. He kept his black jacket and pants, but borrowed one of John's shirts and ties. He looked baggy in the larger clothing, but alright. He sprayed on some deo and did his hair some more, and was soon walking out the apartment's doorway.

"I'll be back soon, baby!" He yelled loudly.

"Shut up!" Zen shouted back, a small smile on his face as well. He closed the door and sat on the couch. He closed his eyes and sighed. He was tired. But he couldn't sleep. It was too soon to relax. He flicked on the laptop and searched the word Ghouls. Immediately pictures of the flesh eaters came up. Dissected versions and everything. Zen clicked on some medical diagrams.

The diagrams enlarged. They were of ghoul physicality. Apparently, ghoul tongues worked differently from humans, and were not made to taste human food, or any food other than human flesh. Ghouls could also survive on other ghouls' flesh, but this tasted horrid to them.

Zen felt a bitter taste in the back of his mouth and scrolled down, and his heart damn near jumped out of his chest. It was a diagram on RC Cells and Kagune. Apparently, ghouls had much higher RC levels than humans. The ratio between the average human and the average ghoul RC levels was 600:8000.

Zen scrolled hurriedly further down, forgetting about anything else. He looked at a diagram of the ghoul back structure. Apparently, an organ called the Kakuhou stored the RC cells, and when the ghoul needed to go predatory, the cells solidified and turned into a kagune- the flesh tendrils.

 _Interesting, isn't it?_

Zen's head shot up. He saw no one. All the doors were closed, and the only sound was coming from the heater. Zen sniffed the air. He smelled nothing but Karin's fading scent. He got up slowly and circled. There was no one in the room with him.

 _How can you stand this shit?_ Came the voice again.

Zen whirled around. Sitting in the couch in front of him was an identical version of him with red eyes and reverse-colored clothes. The same person that Zen had seen in his parents' house and in his dream.

Zen stumbled back into the opposite couch and collapsed into it. Reverse-Zen smiled and put his legs up, practically lounging like he owned the place.

 _So, you seem to be having a fun time here with Ouji. His cousin is sexy. I'm sure she would make a good meal._

"Who... who are you?"

Reverse-Zen smiled and those eerily red eyes glowed.

 _I'm the one who makes all those hard decisions for you, Zen. I'm that part of you that had to be made to handle people like Chromeskull._

"I... keep seeing you. You were there! In the house, in my dream! What the hell is going on!?"

 _You're too much of a pussy to do what you want. Prime example: killing Chromeskull. So I give you a little push. And thank god you're finally alone. I can't stand it when people are around us._

Zen sank back further into the couch and clutched his head. "No. This is impossible. You're just in my mind."

 _That's right. And the beauty of that? I don't have to take shit from anyone else. I can just give you my little advice from the side. Speaking of which, you do realize you haven't eaten in a while, right?_

"Get out of my head!" Zen yelled, throwing a vase at the doppelganger. The vase passed right through Reverse-Zen and smashed to the floor.

Reverse-Zen laughed and got up. Where his feet touched the floor, black veins spread out and Zen suddenly realized he was back in his house.

"What the hell?" Zen whispered.

"Zen?" Came a voice. Zen looked around and saw it was his mother, alive and well. Zen widened his eyes.

"Mom?" He asked disbelievingly.

"What's wrong, son?" Came another voice. It was Zen's father, sitting next to her suddenly and out of nowhere.

Zen smiled and was about to walk over to them, when a shadow loomed over them. The shadow grew into a massive man in a suit and a steel mask. His hands burst all the way through them, and they died, the smiles still plastered on their faces. Zen watched with silent horror. He thought he had gotten over it, but here he was, seeing this all over again. And he was just as terrified.

Chromeskull faded into shadow and Reverse-Zen was suddenly there, laughing next to Zen. He walked over to the corpses of his parents, who were still smiling, and bizzarely, still talking.

"We're so proud of you, Zen. Our son. We're so proud." They chanted.

 _Thanks,_ the doppelganger said and a tentacle of muscle grew from the bottom of his spine, whipping hungrily, red glowing within the purple. The kagune made short work of the corpses, which still smiled even as the claw tore through them and reduced them to chunks.

Reverse-Zen smiled at Zen, his white jacket stained with blood as he took a chunk of raw flesh, and slid it into his mouth. Zen tasted it as well, and he retched and retched and vomited, trying to get it out of his mouth.

 _Don't fight it! It's amazing! These are your thoughts, Zen, I'm just saying them!_

Zen snarled and stood. He stared at Reverse-Zen and saw his own smile on the twin's face. He lunged and knocked his twin to the floor, but he faded and reappeared behind Zen. Zen clawed for him again and ended up smashing the wall. Zen whirled around and kept swinging his fists, hitting nothing but furniture and the walls.

 _Don't bother trying,_ Reverse-Zen said. _I'm the only truth here. And I say,_ _**eat.**_

Zen roared and cracks appeared in his vision. Reverse-Zen laughed as the cracks grew and eventually the whole illusion disappeared. His parents, the doppelganger, Chromeskull, everything. The black house broke to pieces and dissipated. Suddenly he was collapsed on the floor of the now ruined apartment, gasping.

 _You'll never be rid of me,_ the voice said. _You can't get rid of your primal nature._

 _I can try,_ Zen thought and got to his feet shakily. He went to the door he had cracked during his hallucinations and opened it, jogged out the corridor. He ran down the stairs, all sixteen floors of it, and by the time he was out the building door he was in a full sprint. He whipped past people, delicious people, his hunger returning with a vengeance. They have him disgusted looks as he ran past them on the crowded sidewalk at full speed. Zen kept his hood up, his black jacket flapping in the wind.

Where he was going? He had no idea. He just needed to get away from his Reverse-self and the tempting humans around him.

He suddenly caught that scent again- the one that smelled normal, inedible. Zen hurried for the source, and into a dark alley, his hunger gnawing at his insides. Zen collapsed into the damp ground, heaving. He concentrated on the smell of pure nothingness in the alley, the only thing that didn't smell like sweet, wonderful flesh at this point. He heaved and gasped, clutching the ground.

Was he lost? Shit. Now he would have to look around for the stupid building again and in the middle of all these people, too. Zen swallowed, the hunger pushed back slightly, when he realized there was someone else in the alley heaving and coughing.

Zen backed up, afraid it was a lone person. If it were, then he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop himself pouncing on them and tearing into them. But as the person got closer, the light hit his face, and it was easier to make out who it was.

The person had messy, curly brown hair, a hand out in front of them against the sunlight. The person had ripped trousers, a loose, torn up hoodie, and a dark tank top. It was a girl.

She breathed shakily, and her voice was hoarse. She practically dragged herself. But none of that mattered to Zen. This was the first person he had ever come close to, ever since he became a ghoul, who he didn't want to eat at all. Zen stepped close to the girl and kept breathing in the air about her. It was... exhilarating.

"Help..." the girl said and collapsed. Since he didn't want to eat her, Zen had no problem rushing over to her and clutching her.

"Whoa," he said. "Are you okay?" It was a stupid question to ask, but he didn't care. She looked around his age, between fourteen to sixteen. Her body was slender and looked light, but she felt heavier than she should have.

"Please..." she whispered. "I just want some..."

"What? What do you want?"

"...Flesh."

Zen widened his eyes and leant back. The girl's eyes were red, her sclera dark as night.

"You... you're a ghoul?" Zen declared disbelievingly. He got up and left the girl on the ground, moaning and sobbing about her hunger.

That smell... that smell of not wanting to eat... it had come from a ghoul? But why? What did this mean? What did this girl have to do with Zen's appetite? Was he going crazy? What the hell was going on!?

"Zen!" Called someone from behind. Zen turned and saw, in the opening of the alley, shining like an angel was Ouji.

"Ouji!" Zen called. "What the hell are you doing here!?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" Ouji called back as he walked forward. "What are you doing, fooling around with some girl? What about your problem!?"

"It's not like that! She's... she's a... oh, boy... this girl's a-"

As soon as Ouji approached, the girl snapped her head up, red eyes blazing.

"Meat!" She screamed. "Gimme, gimme, GIMME!"

She leapt up, barreling right past Zen and right for Ouji, teeth bared. Just when Zen thought his friend was done for, Ouji whipped a handgun out of his jacket and pointed it at her face. At the last moment, however, he hesitated and fired the bullet into her shoulder.

The girl fell back, shaking on the ground and clutching her bleeding wound.

"OW!" She yelled. "Come on! All I wanted was some... fucking... food... more... flesh..."

And she passed out.

"A ghoul," Ouji finished, his gun still smoking. "This girl is a ghoul." He stared at the girl with utter hatred and knelt next to her. "Scum," he whispered.

He pointed the gun at her temple and thumbed back the hammer.

"Ouji, wait!" Zen shouted. "What are you doing!?"

Ouji looked at him. "Killing this ghoul. What does it look like?"

"No, no, no. You can't kill her."

"What the hell are you talimg about!? Killing ghouls is my job. Just because I'm not considered part of my family anymore does not mean I'm going to stop!"

Zen pulled him back. "Why are you going to kill her? Because she's a ghoul? If that's the case, why don't you kill me too!?"

Ouji pushed him. "That's different! You didn't even know you were a ghoul! But this one... every one like them, they just kill and hurt!" He pointed the gun at the girl again.

"What happened Ouji?" Asked Zen, suddenly quiet. "You don't even know whether or not that's true. I thought you didn't kill ghouls who eat because they have to. Isn't that why you didn't kill me? Because I didn't purposely hurt anyone? Then what's different here!? Are sure you're not just killing this girl because you're angry!?"

Ouji stood very, very still, his gun not wavering. Zen couldn't even see what his face looked like; he was turned away.

 _Now's the perfect time. You can do it. He's not focused. Just a little push..._ the voice said.

 _Shut up,_ Zen commanded.

Then, Ouji turned around, eyes down.

"What do you know about anything I feel?" He asked quietly.

"Nothing," Zen said, "but you shouldn't let your anger take over. I'm crazy. I... know."

Ouji looked at him for what seemed like forever. Then he sighed and dropped his arm to his side.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have done that." He looked at the girl, who was still passed out on the ground. "Well, if we're not going to kill her, like we should, then what are we going to do?"

Zen looked at the girl. "For some reason, she's the only one who doesn't smell like food to me."

"Well, no shit. She's a ghoul. Ghouls don't eat each other. No wonder she doesn't smell edible to you. Wait, what the hell are you doing?"

Zen was moving over to her slowly, breathing deeply. He crouched in front of her and felt her head. It was hot to the touch, amd her skin felt soft. Normal. Not like the skin that would stop knives.

She breathed slowly and raggedly. So slowly, she almost wasn't. For a moment, Zen wondered if her should have let Ouji shoot her. But as he cupped her face in his hand, all that disappeared. Ouji had hesitated. That showed he still wasn't consumed by his anger. Besides, with that creature in his mind, Zen needed him. And this girl... she was the first one to ever dispel his hunger. She was precious.

 _Maybe you should take a taste._

Zen licked his lips. It was tempting. But he couldn't. If he tried to eat her, the one thing that stopped him, then what was there that could stop him ever again? Instead, he tore opened her jacket further.

"Whoa, Zen!" Ouji shouted. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!?"

Zen didn't answer as he slid his hands into the folds of her clothes, looking for something.

"Okay, Zen, stop. You're freaking me out. Don't tell me this is why you want her alive! To mess around with her while she's asleep and-!"

"Oh, shut up," Zen said. He held up a piece of paper. "Look. This was in her top."

Ouji took it, giving his friend a weird look. Nonetheless, he inspected the picture. The girl was standing there, smiling and healthy, her arms around two other people- a sour looking boy and a laughing girl.

"Look at the background." Zen said. "Notice anything?"

Ouji squinted. "Is that... our forest?" In the distance, hard to make out, was the country Zen and Ouji had lived just one day ago.

"Yup. They're at the old factory. See?"

"You mean that old rundown building everyone said was haunted? Yeah. Everyone said there were... demons... there... no way."

"Yes way. What if this girl lives with those two in the picture at the factory?"

"You think so? Wait, even if they do, how does that matter to us!?"

Zen gave him a blank look.

"No. No way. I am not delivering this girl to some abandoned factory with ghouls in it."

"Well, we can't just leave her here! Or do you want to take her to Karin's place?"

"Zen, you son of a-!"

The girl moaned. They looked at each other. Zen smiled and Ouji snarled.

"Yes," Zen said.

"Fuck you," Ouji muttered.

XXX

"I fucking hate you for this, Zen. Do you know that?"

"Yes, I do. You've made that very clear," Zen replied with an annoyed sigh.

The two of them were on the very edge of Tokyo, carrying the unconscious girl between them. It had been problematic, but carrying her through the darker alleys proved effective again. People simply assumed they were two guys carrying their drunk friend back home. No one bothered them. They had walked for an hour, and were now well away from the tall buildings. They were away from the docks, and over the river, the country forest that was once the two boys' home swayed in the breeze.

"How did you find me?" Zen asked, still half carrying the girl. Above them, the sky was still a light gray.

"I was walking through the street and I saw some fag in a jacket running down the street."

"Cheers, man. Weren't you supposed to go for your interview?"

"Yeah. I was on the way, when I... got lost. Tokyo is big. I was heading back to the aprtment to try and find out how to get to the office, and I saw you. I wasn't especially looking for you or anything."

Zen nodded. "What about your job?"

"Yeah, I'm not getting that job. Thanks to you and your ghoul girlfriend here."

"Sorry man. What was the job?"

"...Drug tester."

Zen looked at him. Them looked at the ground.

"Hm," he said, and threw his head back and began laughing. "Drug tester? Are you... are you shitting me? So you were gonna get high for a living? That's... oh my shit, that's good..."

"Hey, at least I was trying to get a job! Unlike you, freeloader."

"Not having to eat purchasable food has its perks." Zen smiled. The voice was silent now. It seemed having Ouji around helped out with that.

"Hey, look," Ouji said.

"What, you find some heroin needles on the ground?" Zen chuckled.

"No, asshole. In front of us."

Zen looked. Ahead of them was a large, worn down building. It was mostly wood and parts of the factory were holed up. Many of the widows were cracked and broken.

"Looks like crap," Zen said, frowning.

"Hey, don't tell me. You're the one who wanted to come here in the first place." Ouji replied. "What if they're not even here?"

"Don't worry," Zen said. "They're here."

"How can you tell?"

"I can... smell them. It's weird. They're the only things that don't smell like fresh food."

Ouji looked at him, nodded, and they made their way down the dirt and grass road to the building.

"Do all people smell like food?"

"So far... yes."

"Even me? Cool. What do I smell like?"

Zen hesitated. "Uh... I don't think you should know. Everyone smells different."

"Oh, come on. I want to know what I smell like to ghouls. A nice curry, something hot and crisp? Sweet and tender? Or something that just tastes like-"

He stopped suddenly as something long, jagged and red flew from the direction of the factory and thumped into his shoulder.

"SHIT!" Ouji yelled as he fell, clutching his bleeding shoulder. He squirmed on the ground and unearthed his handgun, but another red projectile shot into the gun with accurate precision, sparking and tearing it from Ouji's grasp. Ouji rolled out of the way as another volley of projectiles struck the wet ground he had been lying on one second ago.

Zen snarled and stepped in front of his friend. A volley of the sharp red things whizzed forward, aimed right for the Shigemura's face. Zen thought of the alternatives, but the things were coming for him too fast. If he died, then whoever was firing these things would kill Ouji as well.

And so, Zen broke rule number one.

His eyes pulsed and filled with a red like blood, the whites of his eyes fading until they were dark as midnight. A tendril of flesh tore out of the bottom of Zen's back and whipped in front of him, deflecting the projectiles.

More and more of the sharp things flew for Zen now, and now there were different colored ones as well. Zen spun and whipped the tentacle around wildly, sending every single one flying back. Then, suddenly, the barrage stopped all at once.

"Come on!" Zen yelled. "Is that all you have for me!?"

A shadow flew out of one of the holes in the roof of the building. It twisted through the air and landed about twenty meters away from Zen. Two sheets of red crystal protruded from the hooded figure's back. He had no expression on his lips, his eyes completely shadowed.

Zen snarled again and his kagune whipped around angrily. The hooded one walked for toward Zen. The walk soon turned into a jog, and soon he was breaking into a full sprint. As he ran, long jagged crystals of red flew for Zen, who waved his kagune around, struggling to deflect the fast, steadily better - aimed barrage from hitting his vitals.

The figure in the hood kept running for Zen, and at the last moment, his feet left the ground, and he twisted through the air right past the Shigemura. He landed in a crouch behind Zen, who gasped and fell to his knees. He touched his side. A steady stream of blood flowed from it, pooling to the floor.

The hooded man went for Zen again, both sheets of crystal aimed for his face.

And another tentacle grew from Zen's back.

Zen's two kagune batted away the crystal sheets and stabbed for the man, who almost got caught in the chest, but managed to dodge to the right just in time. He rolled in the dirt, his hood somehow still on. He grunted, the left side of his side bleeding.

Zen grinned again. The man was down. He obviously wasn't used to getting beaten and hurt like this. And that inexperience would be his death. Zen charged for the guy and his twin purple-and-red kagune dove for his torso.

And suddenly fell back, limp.

Zen stopped running abruptly, falling to the dirt. He gasped and his kagune shriveled and shrunk to stumps. He was suddenly drained, and he was suddenly very, painfully hungry.

 _Told you that you should have eaten,_ the voice said.

Zen stayed there, kneeling on the ground and gasping, clutching his throat in silent pain. He couldn't even make a sound.

The hooded figure took advantage of his opponent's moment of weakness and stood, trudging over to him slowly. He readied the sheets of crystal over his head, aimed for Zen's head.

Even with Zen's fading vision, he could still see the red orbs under the hood, and the way they contorted in pain as Ouji fired a bullet into his collarbone. He fell back, and Ouji readied to fire again, and suddenly a young woman with short, dark hair was falling on him, driving her boot into his side.

Ouji coughed blood and the hooded man lifted his sheets of crystal again, slowly and shakily for Zen's face. With one last burst of effort, Zen got up, and launched forward, smiling shakily as he pulled back his arm and punched the hooded man in the chest.

The hooded man flew back, skidding along the dirt, his ribs cracked and ruined. Zen laughed a little and suddenly the girl with the short hair was spinning toward him, slamming a heel into his face.

And Zen? He saw everything turn dark and fell back, letting the world be lost in oblivion.

XXX  
 _ **Demons, the spawn of hell, are born from the darkness alone, and die alone. If demons meet, then they will battle with all their power, for God has forbidden their friendship. Because God fears this. Because if two demons made bonds? We would all be damned.**_  
 _ **And if a group banded together... then God help us all.**_


End file.
